Barrier Management, an Application for Events Not Related to Loss of Containment

An efficient operational risk management system must be able to mitigate occurrences that can lead to events of great impact for the company, such as major accidents or bussiness interruption events. Implementing a risk-based management methodology makes it possible to optimize the allocation of resources and, at the same time, reduce the risk of losses.

In july 2019, 29% of FPSO units, in operation, in the world, were located in Brazil. An FPSO can be converted from an old tanker or have its hull built specifically for this purpose. With the pre-salt, the process plants showed an increase in both complexity and capacity, which required more robust risk controls, especially in the events of loss of containment. The question we are asking ourselves is whether we are managing to adequately manage the risks of naval systems by increasing the complexity of the process plants associated with them?

The purpose of this article is to present potential gains and challenges in adopting a model for monitoring operational risks using the bow tie methodology combined with the audit of barriers for events not related to loss of containment. A conceptual bow tie is presented, whose top event is “loss of stability of FPSO”. The idea is to apply the methodology that has been working for LOPC for events not associated with loss of content, in order to prioritize protective measures in these critical structures so that they can be applied in the routine management of naval systems. It is also intended to present a suggestion for the Safety Case associated with this Bow tie and next steps.